The Newmarket sausage is a
pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
made to a traditional recipe from the English town of
Newmarket, Suffolk
Newmarket is a market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. Located (14 miles) west of Bury St Edmunds and (14 miles) northeast of Cambridge. It is considered the birthplace and global centre of thoroughbred hor ...
. Two varieties of Newmarket Sausage are made branded with the names of two different family
butcher
A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesal ...
s. Both are sold widely throughout the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. In October 2012 the Newmarket sausage was awarded
Protected Geographical Indicator of Origin (PGI) status. The flavourings used in a Newmarket sausage are black & white pepper, salt, thyme, parsley and nutmeg.
Varieties
The three varieties of Newmarket Sausage are Musk's, Powters and Eric Tennant Butchers. The main difference between the three recipes is that Musk's uses bread as a filler while Powters and Tennants both use rusk.
All varieties have won several awards.
History
Powters Sausages began in 1881 in what was a small butchery shop in Newmarket. Powters was originally started by the present owner Grant Powter's great-grandfather. During his time in the town, William Harper developed the recipe for what is now the Newmarket sausage.
Musk's sausages originated in the small village of
Stetchworth, three miles from Newmarket. Elizabeth Drake, the owner of a butcher's shop in Tea Kettle Lane was widowed in 1882 and, in 1884, remarried to butcher James Musk in Depford, Kent. She then began (or possibly continued) to sell the Musk's variety of sausages. These are believed to have been produced at Ivy House Farm where the Drakes were tenant pig farmers. Drake and Musk also had a shop in Market Row, Newmarket, from which they traded until moving to the High Street of Newmarket. James Musk died in 1905, a few months after opening the main shop on High Street, where the business traded until 1979. After his death, the business passed to James' stepson, Louis Frederick Drake (the Musks had no children), and later to his grandson Louis Gilbert Drake.
Musk's sausages were favoured by royalty and
Royal Warrants were issued to Musk's from
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
Born duri ...
in 1907, Prince
Edward
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) in 1929, Queen
Elizabeth, later Queen Mother, in 1965, and Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
in 2005. It is not known whether Elizabeth Drake created the Musk's recipe and her new husband was the business influence to make it a success or whether James brought the idea back to Newmarket from
Chiswick
Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...
in London, where he had been working as a butcher in 1881.
PGI status
In 2005, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
and the UK
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United K ...
tried to persuade the two companies to merge recipes and gain
Protected Geographical Status
Three European Union schemes of geographical indications and Traditional food, traditional specialties, known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), promo ...
, from which products such as
Parma ham
''Prosciutto crudo'', in English often shortened to prosciutto ( , ), is Italian uncooked, unsmoked, and dry-cured ham. ''Prosciutto crudo'' is usually served thinly sliced.
Several regions in Italy have their own variations of ''prosciutto crudo ...
and
Stilton cheese
Stilton is an English cheese, produced in two varieties: Blue, which has '' Penicillium roqueforti'' added to generate a characteristic smell and taste, and White, which does not. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of o ...
have benefited. It would mean their use of the Newmarket label would be protected to them for the sausage market, but it would also mean only one of the two recipes could exist. Faced with this problem, each party stands firmly by its own recipe, and neither wants to bow down nor merge recipes.
In November 2012, the Newmarket sausage received PGI recognition, all recipes co-existing as the European Union permitted the distinction between the recipes (including that of Eric Tennant Butcher's) and incorporated all the different ingredients listed in the application.
See also
*
List of sausages
This is a list of notable sausages. Sausage is a food usually made from ground meat with a skin around it. Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made from intestine, but sometimes synthetic. Some sausages are cooked durin ...
*
References
External links
EU Food Quality website with access to PDO/PGI/TSG listings europa.eu
{{sausage
English sausages
Newmarket, Suffolk
British products with protected designation of origin